On July 24, 54 organizations from across the political spectrum sent a letter to each member of the House of Representatives commending the House for including in the annual defense spending bill a measure to repeal the 2001 Authorization of Use of Military Force (AUMF) .
House and Senate negotiators will now determine whether the 2001 AUMF repeal provision will remain in the final bill. During this process, it is imperative that members of Congress continue to publicly support repealing the blank check for war, which has led to ever-expanding military operations under three presidents.
Re: 2001 AUMF Repeal Provision in Defense Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2020
Dear Representative:
We, the undersigned, are a diverse group of organizations with a range of missions and perspectives from across the ideological spectrum. We share a common view that the Executive Branch has expanded its interpretation of the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) (PL 107-40) far beyond Congress’s original intent, in order to justify an ever-increasing number of military operations around the world. We therefore write to commend the House of Representatives for including in the Defense Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2020, Section 9025, which would repeal the 2001 AUMF eight months after enactment. We ask that you support this provision as the bill moves to conference.
The Framers of the Constitution, recognizing the Executive Branch’s inclination to war, wisely and deliberately assigned to Congress the power to decide whether, when, and where the United States goes to war. As James Madison wrote, “The constitution supposes, what the History of all governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has, accordingly, with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legislature.”
Three days after the 9/11 attacks, Congress passed the 2001 AUMF to authorize military force against the groups responsible for those attacks and those who harbored them. Now, after nearly 18 years, three successive administrations have cited the 2001 AUMF as authority for the United States to use lethal force around the world against a growing number of groups, including some that did not exist in 2001. According to a 2018 Congressional Research Service report, the 2001 AUMF has been used by the Executive Branch as authority for counterterrorism operations in at least 19 countries.
This expansive and legally dubious use of the 2001 AUMF has come at the expense of a thorough examination of a security challenge that does not have a solely military solution.
This sustained use of military force is the longest in U.S. history, having lasted longer that the Civil War, World War I, and World War II combined. The U.S. military is now conducting operations in 80 countries around the world. The post 9-11 wars have [cost](https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2018/Crawford_Costs%20of%20War%20Estimates%20 Through%20FY2019.pdf.) more than $5.9 trillion and resulted in the [deaths](https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2018/Human%20Costs%2C%20Nov%208%202018%2 0CoW.pdf) of approximately 500,000 people, including nearly 15,000 U.S. military personnel and contractors, and 250,000 civilians.
Yet Congress has never debated and voted on the uses of force, outside of Afghanistan, that the Executive Branch claims are authorized by the 2001 AUMF. The vast majority of members of Congress were not in office when this authorization was passed. Of the 435 current members of the House, only 67 of them (15.4%) voted for the 2001 AUMF, and only 35 sitting Senators voted for it. Indeed, more than 80% of current members of Congress have never voted on this authority.
The Founders vested in Congress the authority to make the hard decision about whether, when, and where to go to war as the branch most accountable to the people of the United States. Congress should repeal the 2001 AUMF and hold a public debate as to whether endless war actually serves the American people. It should not sit idly by while the Executive Branch continues to expand the use of lethal force around the world at immense cost to U.S. national security, the lives of civilians and U.S. service members around the world, and our national treasure.
Section 9025 of the Defense Appropriations bill would sunset the 2001 AUMF after eight months, leaving Congress plenty of time to debate and vote on whether to authorize continued participation in any current conflict. We ask that you publicly support Section 9025 of the House Defense Appropriations bill and the need for Congress to reassert its constitutional duty to determine and vote on when the United States goes to war.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
About Face: Veterans Against the War
Action Corps
Action Corps NYC
American Civil Liberties Union
American Friends Service Committee
Amnesty International USA
Antiwar.com
Bridges Faith Initiative
Campaign for Liberty
Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security
Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for International Policy
Chicago Area Peace Action
Church of the Brethren Office of Peacebuilding and Policy
Co-Executives of Global Ministries (UCC & Disciples)
CODE PINK
Common Defense
Conference of Superiors of Men (Catholic)
Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, US Provinces
Council for a Livable World
Council on American-Islamic Relations
CREDO Action
Defending Rights & Dissent
Demand Progress
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
FreedomWorks
Foreign Policy for America
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Historians for Peace and Democracy
Human Rights First
Islamic Society of North America
Indivisible
Institute for Policy Studies, National Priorities Project
Institute for Policy Studies, New Internationalism Project
Just Foreign Policy
Justice for Muslims Collective
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
NIAC Action
National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd
National Council of Churches
National Religious Campaign Against Torture
Peace Action
Peace Action New York State
Peace Corps Iran Association Board of Directors
Ploughshares Fund
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Project on Government Oversight
September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
The United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries
VoteVets
Win Without War
Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND)
Yemen Peace Project